Recent reviews of the the bands Live performances

"When jazz musicians get on good terms with their bank managers, it's oftern because they can do something other than just turn up to tatty rooms and blow. Entries in the history books are full of oblique references to these truancies, such as "was diverted for some years by a busy schedule as a studio musician" or "enjoyed a successful career as a composer of ad jingles and TV themes and has only recently returned to touring".  
Buffs can sometimes get sniffy about good improvisers who abandon gigs at the Dog and Duck and sell their skills in a bigger market, but the implication that such dalliances erode talent doesn't square with the facts, as British multi-instrumentalist Gary Husband demonstrated this week. 
The American drummer Billy Cobham is on record as embracing Husband's furious percussion playing, but he also described his piano playing as "one of the best kept secrets in music". That was the aspect the 39-year-old Yorkshireman turned toward the spotlight at the Soho Pizza Express, and he proved Cobham resoundingly right. He was - quite unexpectedly - mind blowing, as he re-energised his obvious chemistry with the work of Bill Evans and Herbie Hancock, and brought to his performance a restless, prowling intensity that recalled the early appearances of Django Bates. The latter may have been a playful teenage prodigy when his keyboard talents dawned on the world and Husband may now be a thirtysomething whose career path has perhaps camouflaged this gift, but the sheer clarity, driving momentum and fresh improvisational eagerness of a skill for which the public hardly knows him makes Husband seem like an explosive newcomer as a pianist.  
He was launching a CD with a fine trio featuring bassist Mick Hutton and drummer Gene Calderazzo and the material also includes the graceful cabaret/jazz manner of young singer Nicki Leighton-Thomas, and a piquant if static New Agey acoustic guitar ballad featuring Steve Topping. But it's the way Husband rips into the harmonic implications of "Take 5" and "Softly As In A Morning Sunrise" that's the white-hot core of the show. World-class".
John Fordham, The GUARDIAN Newspaper 19/05/99, (in review of the trio's CD launch concert -Pizza Express Jazz Club, London W.1).

Never heard so many whoops of enjoyment at the Vortex recently. Which is a bit strange, for the dense, convoluted treatments of "You'll Never Know", "Take 5" and "My Foolish Heart" left this listener stunned, feeling like he had experienced something extremely powerful and very different to the way most trios operate. The unhack-neyed themes are so intricate and so tightly played by pianist Husband, bassist Mick Hutton and drummer Gene Calderazzo, that in some strange way to this listener they hit the same kind of emotional impact that the best of free jazz does.
(The New Gary Husband Trio at The Vortex, 21/07/1999, reviewed by the Out and About with the JAZZ UK Magazine team.

Mr. Husband, Superb playing, trio and arrangements. I'm happy I got to hear you.
Terence Corley, Pianist, Count Basie Orchestra, after the Pizza Express gig, 20/9/1999

Sharing the stage with us and opening every show (in June 1999) was the Jim Mullen Group (great guitarist) with Gary Husband playing drums ... that was a treat as well, Gary is such a great drummer (and an equally great pianist!!, as evident on his new CD).
Drummer/Bandleader Dave Weckl, 13/09/1999

LIKE current weather patterns Gary Husband's piano playing was bright and breezy with the occasional stormy passage, however not with the same evastation as his last visit to the Bonington, when, as a drummer, he almost wrecked his kit. 
Gary's intense, high energy performance on Thursday, exhibited his rapid-fire technique on the Bonington's Steinway and two synthesisers . . . on some numbers he darted around playing all three instruments! Nevertheless he proved a consummate and dedicated musician playing his own exciting, absorbing compositions and heavily disguised standards. 
Accompanying Gary were bassist Mick Hutton, whose huge disciplined hands were a joy to watch as he followed his leader through some particularly formidable arrangements. He solo'd with power and authority coupled with unerring accuracy all evening. Playing drums was New Yorker Gene Calderazzo, whose rapport with the other two musicians was almost uncanny. He too was a spectacular soloist and impeccable timekeeper. Gary, with the aid of the synthesisers and the piano was able to produce a multitude of sounds, effects and textures. Cole Porter's "I Concentrate On You" was skilfully merged with the Dave Brubeck classic "Take Five" featuring electrifying runs on piano and his Korg synth. An original "Le Coco" highlighted Gary's restless style, while a ballad "If I Should Lose You" found him in a more tranquil mood. Following Gary's intricate intro to Jerome Kern's "Just The Way You Look Tonight" Mick Hutton answered with great sensitivity on the higher register of his bass. 
The indefatigable Mr. Husband never flagged in the second set . . . reaching new heights in an up-tempo version of "Softly As In A Morning Sunrise" but less hectic and more intense on his own composition "Not Even The Rain". "Three Lies" was an amalgam of tunes and styles; familiar snatches of jazz classics and popular songs could be detected, but you had to be quick as the trio mixed sounds, moods and effects at lighting speed.
Alan Joyce, JAZZ REVIEW- Bonington Theatre, Arnold, Nottingham, England, 10/2/2000,

Dear Gary, 
Thank you again - all of you - for a great concert, re-affirmed today by many here as the best yet in our series in terms of musical interest and sheer excitement. We look forward to seeing you here again at some point - in either instrumental role - and in the meantime we send our best wishes for all your projects.  
Yours Sincerely, John Barker.
LETTER. Bedales Olivier Theatre, Steep, Petersfield, UK, 14/03/00

Keyboard prodigy who stars with groups as varied as Level 42, Billy Cobham and Zakir Hussain leads storming trio with Mick Hutton and the ubiquitous Gene Calderazzo on bass and drums at the London Rhythm Sticks Festival.
Jack Masserik - HOT TICKETS MAGAZINE, London, 07/00

Gary is best known as drummer with Level 42, but don't let this put you off. He's also a damn fine pianist and percussionist who's worked with the likes of Zakir Hussain and Billy Cobham. Here he plays two sets which showcase his virtuosity - one on piano, the other on drums, both featuring the excellent New York drummer Gene Calderazzo. (Rhythm Sticks Festival Highlights).
John Lewis, TIME OUT MAGAZINE, London, 07/00

RHYTHM STICKS PREVIEW, JULY 15TH ... At the Purcell Room, British drummer/pianist Gary Husband appears with his dynamic postbop trio - once again set to confirm Billy Cobham's contention that Husband's freewheeling gifts at both the kit and the keyboards were among the best-kept secrets in music. Cobham (himself) is another of the American jazz stars, working alongside veteran Count Basieite swinger Ed Thigpen (QEH, Tuesday 17) on a special in which they take it in turns to propel the BBC Big Band - Cobham premiering a new work, Thigpen performing an Ellington programme.
John Fordham, The GUARDIAN GUIDE, London, 07/00

"ON THE EDGE OF YOUR SEAT! 
 
... Also at Ronnie Scott's this week is the superb trio led by pianist (and sometime drummer) Gary Husband, with some scalding drumming from Gene Calderazzo and the powerful, sinewy counter-melody of bassist Mick Hutton. Husband's broad grasp of contemporary jazz takes in the spacy electronics of 80s Miles Davis, and driving uptempo acoustic postbop that puts you on the edge of your seat, if you can find one." 
(The trio's second appearance at RONNIE SCOTT'S, LONDON, 7th. to 12th. Aug. 2000)  
 
 

John Fordham, THE GUARDIAN Newspaper, London, 11/08/00

" ... The National Youth Jazz Orchestra is playing it's annual high-profile week at Ronnie Scott's opposite the dynamic multi-instrumentalist Gary Husband and his New Trio, and it is worth showing up early to catch both. The NYJO is very good on clever, hard-swinging, hairpin-turn arrangements and explosive brass licks, while Husband's trio is a constantly unpredictable class act, it's material full of surprises ... " 
(The trio's third appearance at the club, 26th. Feb. to 3rd. March opposite The National Youth Jazz Orchestra.)
John Fordham - The GUARDIAN Newspaper, Feb. 28th. 2001